The goal of the Minority Worker Training Program of New York (MWT Program) is to prepare and place young people of color in the expanding areas of employment associated with the assessment, reclamation, remediation, and construction of environmentally contaminated lands and buildings. This program will be cooperatively conducted by a unique consortium of organizations that combines technical, outreach, educational, and community advocacy skills and links minority-led environmental and community-based organizations with union and academic training programs. Over the past nine years, these organizations have successfully conducted the MWT Program by enrolling nearly 265 students and have made 244 job placements in the targeted areas of employment. Over the past nine years, the performance is this program has steadily improved, achieving increased performance in program completion, job placement, and job retention. As an example, 100% of the 2003-2004 program year graduates were placed in unionized positions, most within two weeks of program completion. The average wage for the placements of our graduates was $14.86/hour. This proposal requests funding for the delivery of a 19-week pre-apprenticeship training program targeted toward individuals of color between the ages of 18 and 25 and who come from disadvantaged households in communities characterized as economically in distress. The New York District Council of Carpenters' Labor Technical College (LTC) proposes to administer a curriculum very similar to that which has been offered over the past two funding cycles, with some proposed program enhancements. Over the course of the 19 weeks, LTC will offer courses in environmental remediation and worker health and safety that lead to certifications and/or licenses, introductory skills in the building trades, as well as industry-related mathematics, writing, and life skills/career guidance, which prepares students not just to work, but to successfully compete in the "world of work." LTC will work with community-based organizations that provide outreach and recruitment, program promotion, ongoing support services, and assistance with job placement, particularly jobs linked with local economic development. The program will also continue its close collaboration with the apprenticeship program of the District Council of Carpenters as well as other lucrative organized building trades. Finally, the program will continue its relationships with firms primarily engaged in environmental remediation of brownfield properties and other contaminated lands or buildings. MWT Program will operate under general contract from the UMDNJ-School of Public Health and will be administered by the LTC. The LTC proposes to continue its partnerships with community-based organizations and anticipates maintaining the partnerships developed during the previous grant period. Those organizations include Harlem Congregations for Community Improvement (HCCI) of Harlem in upper Manhattan; Magnolia Tree Earth Center of Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn; The Fifth Avenue Committee/Brooklyn Workforce Innovations of Park Slope, Brooklyn; Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation of East New York/Cypress Hills/Ridgewood, Queens; and South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation of the south Bronx.